Carney, top GOP aides tweet-fight on minimum wage, ObamaCare

White Houses spokesman Jay Carney challenged top aides to Republican House leaders on Twitter Wednesday, objecting to their opposition to the administration's calls for an increase in the minimum wage.

The quarrel was largely between Carney and Rory Cooper, communications director to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.). Carney also brought Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) spokesman Brendan Buck into the debate.

Cooper initiated the exchange during Carney’s White House press briefing.

Cooper was referring to a statement Carney made at the briefing. A reporter asked Carney to react to a survey Cantor is pushing that suggests a minimum wage hike would cause 38 percent of employers that pay it now to lay people off to cover costs.

“It sounds like a little forum shopping for the survey he wanted and the report he wanted,” Carney replied. “What I can tell you is that overwhelmingly, economists say that the macro impact of raising the minimum wage does not affect job creation in a negative way.”

Carney responded to Cooper’s pushback.

.@rorycooper What does Rep. Cantor think the min wage should be? $5.15, as in 2007 when he voted NO to raising it? Lower? Zero?

Buck then asked, “If you really believe there aren't any costs to raising the wage, why not a $20 one?”

President Obama called on Congress to increase the minimum wage last year. House Republicans have largely opposed raising it to $10.10 an hour, which Democrats have been pushing.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid late last month decided to delay any action on legislation that would increase it to that amount. A Congressional Budget Office report had recently come out estimating that a minimum wage hike could cost the equivalent of 500,000 jobs by late 2016.